There were more than 250 COVID-19 cases at post-secondary schools on Vancouver Island in December, new data shows

There were more than 250 COVID-19 cases at post-secondary schools on Vancouver Island in December, new data shows
CHEK
There were more than 250 coronavirus cases at post-secondary institutions on Vancouver Island in December, with the vast majority occurring at the University of Victoria, new data obtained by CHEK News shows. (CHEK News)

There were more than 250 coronavirus cases at post-secondary institutions on Vancouver Island in December, with the vast majority occurring at the University of Victoria, new data obtained by CHEK News shows.

According to the new data, there were 257 confirmed COVID-19 cases at colleges and universities on Vancouver Island between Dec. 1 and Dec. 31, 2021 — a period that saw a massive spike of cases across the province due to the Omicron variant.

“Case reported attending institution either during incubation and/or infectious period,” Island Health said in a statement accompanying the data, which noted. “This does not mean transmission occurred in this setting.”

Of the cases recorded in December, the University of Victoria had 195, which is the most of any college or university in the Island Health region. At least 182 of the 195 cases recorded at UVic were linked to an outbreak among numerous students, which was first reported as clusters, that began near the end of the school semester in early December.

Elsewhere, Camosun College had 35 recorded cases, Vancouver Island University had 20 recorded cases — 16 were at the Nanaimo campus and the other four cases were recorded at Cowichan campus and another campus that was not specified — and North Island College had seven cases. Island Health did not provide a breakdown by campus for Camosun College.

There were also six different post-secondary institutions that recorded fewer than five cases in the month of December, which Island Health did not identify for privacy reasons but noted that “post-secondary is defined fairly loosely here and might only include online participation.”

The disclosure that there were 257 cases linked to post-secondary schools in December brings the total number of confirmed cases linked to colleges and universities for the final five months of 2021 to 346.

Island Health doesn’t typically disclose the number of cases linked to post-secondary institutions and rarely issues notifications regarding COVID-19 exposures on school campuses.

B.C. public health officials have also repeatedly stated that post-secondary institutions are low-risk settings for transmission and continue to discourage post-secondary institutions from alerting students or staff about potential exposures.

“Please do not notify faculty, staff or students about potential or confirmed communicable disease cases (including COVID-19) unless requested to do so by the local Medical Health Officer,” reads a paragraph in the Ministry of Health’s Return to Campus Public Health Guidance, which was last updated on Dec. 22, 2021 and is available online.

RELATED: Nearly 100 confirmed COVID cases at Island post-secondary schools during first four months of fall term, new data shows

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Nicholas PescodNicholas Pescod

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